For a Malayali to master the classical art of Kuchipudi is a strange and rare occurrence. But for Padinjyarayil Ramadevi, the seasoned Kuchipudi artiste and a theoretician who had even scripted books on Kuchipudi art, released CDson Bharata’s Natya Sastra pursuing this dance form is a passion. Her presentation of ‘Ramayana’, converting the entire epic into ballet form in Kuchipudi style was in itself a testimony, mirroring her proficiency. As a child she was trained initially in Kathakali by the well-known guru Chemancheri Kunjiraman Nair.
Going down memory lane, Ramadevi says, “I was born and brought up in Bapatla in Guntur district. For all practical purposes I am a Telugu girl, as my father came down to Bapatla from Kerala and settled there and took to hotel business. I married a relative of mine who pursues the same business in Hyderabad. Though I learned Kathakali in our sojourn in Kerala, my mother insisted I learn Kuchipudi art. Duly I got initiated into this art form by Mahankali Srimannarayana. I was under his tutelage for nearly 15 years. Today I am able to write some lyrics for dance in Telugu for my own ballets.”
After shifting to Hyderabad after her marriage, Ramadevi joined Government college of dance and music, Secunderabad and did certificate and diploma courses. Later she joined Potti Sriramulu Telugu University for post-graduation, stood first and won gold medal that was awarded to her by the, then, Governor of Andhra Pradesh Rangarajan. “I was so inspired by this achievement I scripted and staged a ballet Amara Jeevi Potti Sreeramulu , on whose name the University came up.
As to her academic qualifications, Rama Devi says she did B.Sc. in Andhra University;
B.Ed. from Annamalai University, M.Phil. from Madurai Kamaraj University and earned higher diploma in software engineering at Aptech India. She did Diploma in Domestic science too. She earned doctorate from the Telugu University for her research work on ‘Comparative Study between Kathakali and Kuchipudi’. She has also brought out a book on this subject and presented a ballet contrasting both the styles at Ravindra Bharati inviting a Kathakali artiste from Kerala. “I had also presented papers on this subject both in Telugu University and Sidhendra Kalakshetram in Kuchipudi village,” she informs. She’s also a recipient of Senior Fellowship of Department of Culture, Government of India.
Ramadevi established ‘Sri Sai Nataraja Academy of Kuchipudi Dance’ in 1989 in Secunderabad and began grooming students to take practical and theory examinations.”
Rama Devi penned a book titled Kuchipudi Dance in Textual form in English to facilitate students to understand the inputs of the art. She informs that Raja Rama Mohan Roy Library in Kolkota chose this book for distribution to 417 central libraries in the country and even in Andaman and Nicobar islands.
Ramadevi is one of the active participants in seminars on different aspects of Kuchipudi art like ‘Daruvus’, ‘Kalapas’ and so on.
